Place du Tertre is a colorful embodiment of several of the artist's favorite subjects: the rooster, lovers, and the spiritual. Here, Chagall has included a compilation of various motifs from his previous paintings to create a multi-narrative composition. Discussing Chagall’s lyrical approach to painting, Susan Compton has observed, “When he was younger, Chagall disliked being told that his art was literary or even poetic, because he wanted to suppress narration in his work in favor of the means of expression…throughout his paintings Chagall introduces human beings, who may be arranged in an illogical manner, but who are a constant reminder that art is above all a celebration of the humanity of mankind” (Susan Compton, Chagall (exhibition catalogue), London, 1985, p. 242). Figures atop a rooster and other thematically unrelated figures are united beneath outlined buildings ꦕby the intense red that suffuses the entire canvas.

The present work highlights Chagall’s ability to bring a variety of loosely connected elements, both spiritual and secular, together in one picture plane. Throughout his career Chagall turned to the Bible for inspiration, particularly in his works painted after his second journey to Israel in 1951 which are imbued with depictions of biblical and religious subjects. Writing about this theme in his later works, the artist himself said, “I went back to the great universal book, the Bible. Since my childhood, it has filled me with visions about the world and inspired me in my work. In moments of doubt, its highly poetic grandeur and wisdom have comforted me. For me it is like a second nature. I see the events of life and works of art through the window of The Bible” (Chagall, 'Musée du Message Biblique', Chagall by Chagall, New York, 1979, p. 189). ꧙The thinly brushed crucifix featured in the upper left of the painting brings a somber tone to the composition as it towers ෴above the brilliant blue rooster.

Chagall often featured the beloved rooster in his work to symbolize the rural existence of his past and also to add a unique element of spirituality to the work. Franz Meyer states, "The fowlyard, too, has its place in Chagall's recollections of his childhood.  That is why poultry are always part of the Russian scenes painted during his first Paris period.  In the twenties impressions of French farmyards and work on the Fables lend the motif a new topicality…For thousands of years it has played a part in religious rites as the embodiment of the forces of the sun and fire. This symbolic meaning still lingers on in Chagall's works, where the cock represents elementary spiritual power" (Franz Meyer, Marc Chagall, New York, 1963, p. 380). 

Fig. 1 Marc Chagall, Sur Le coq, 1928, oil on canvas